The best way to become a graphic designer in 2022

HCA ad
(Image credit: Sylwia Czarnecka)

Are you looking to start a career in design? If so, the BA (Hons) Graphic & Media Design course at Hereford College of Arts (HCA) will give you the skills you need to succeed in the ever-growing, ever-popular creative industry. But that’s surely like every other college course, right? 

Wrong. At HCA, you don’t just learn the basics of graphic design, instead the course goes the extra mile where it really matters. For a start, the course is led by industry experienced graphic designers, who will not only impart the real-world knowledge every graduate needs, but who will also help you get a foot in the door with local and national creative media companies to gain valuable work experience. 

HCA students also get the opportunity to work alongside professional designers and with live clients in real-life working situations. So not only do you acquire key graphic design skills, you also learn how to design and produce work within a professional creative studio environment, with all the latest industry technology and software, providing all the preparation you need to be industry-ready upon graduating.

HCA is different to larger universities as they keep class sizes smaller so students benefit from lots of contact with tutors, technicians, engage with clients, and win live briefs. Tutors encourage students to express themselves through distinctive, creative, commercially savvy and ambitious ideas, working both as an individual and collaboratively with students from other disciplines at HCA.

All of the above may well sound too good to be true, but the proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Or projects, in this case, so let’s take a closer look at how HCA has adapted its teaching style in response to events over the past 18 months. 

The coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements and Show Racism the Red Card are but a few monumental things to have happened recently that have changed the way people interact with each other, forging new styles of communication in the world of media and graphic design. 

Below are some amazing examples of how HCA lecturers have recognised and placed emphasis on these influences, and how students are already embracing the design trends that look set to pave the way in 2022...

Drink spiking awareness – Harry Woodhouse

HCA ad

(Image credit: Harry Woodhouse)

Mask littering Instagram story – Joel Pitt

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(Image credit: Joel Pitt)

Storyboard for BLM motion graphic: Ollie Tindale

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(Image credit: Ollie Tindale)

Book an open day

Want to know more? Book on to one of the HCA BA (Hons) Graphic & Media Design open days:

  • Tuesday 11 January at 2pm
  • Thursday 13 January at 10am
  • Saturday 22 January at 10am

Here you’ll hear from staff and students about the course, view the college’s state of the art workshops and ask any burning questions you might have. What are you waiting for? Sign up to a HCA open day now and kickstart your career in graphic design.

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